The Reality Of Reality Television

The evolution of television content is currently steadily moving towards reality television shows. The shift from interest in fiction drama series to reality shows has turned the regular television viewers into addicted voyeurs. There have been diverse views on the effect of reality television shows ranging from support to criticism. George Will, in his article “Reality television: oxymoron” believes that reality television is making ordinary people degenerate morally and act stupid in the effort to please a disinterested audience. Reality TV shows are relying heavily on building extraordinary characters or events out of the norm and attract the attention of the audience. Kellner argues that the audience is enticed by “media constructs

In order to fit in to society, some people may modify their own actions based on the perceived reality of the TV show. It is easy to reality TV programs and the way they are perceived, could affect society as a whole.

"Reality TV is set up to make people entertaining. A good person with values and principles is not good television" a quote by Ronda Rousey a mixed martial arts artist. Many people believe or want to believe that reality tv is true, but many other people avoid it for the fact that it is obviously fake. I personally don't watch reality tv but for the sake of this essay, I watched a few episodes of many television series to see and determine what I think about them. The point of this essay is to prove how fake reality tv is and I have succeeded in accomplishing that. Most of the reality shows have the camera crew all up in people's business or "secret" cameras placed in which people don’t know about them yet keep

Also, in many cases, the characters used in these shows are not ordinary individuals, but highly paid actors that simply recite scripts. Clearly, these shows are inaccurately labeled as “reality television,” and many individual’s time is wasted as a result. Time for many is very valuable. Wasting a person’s time because of an inaccurate description could be just as detrimental as wasting a person’s money because of an inaccurate description. Many people watch these shows to view real life situations, but what they are really viewing is the complete opposite. This cultivates confusion about what is real and what is fake.

Reality show characters are often shown in embarrassing situations and their personal matters are publicized to the world. The research found that frequent viewers of reality TV highly value revenge, competition, and achieving status and prestige (Mendible, 2004, p. 336). Mendible further discussed reality television’s strategic use of humiliation as a form of entertainment to draw in viewers (Mendible, 2004). With constant exposure to media images, audiences may be influenced by the television show’s values and subliminal messages. People use reality television as an informational tool to “people watch” and observe what is socially acceptable or not (Tyree, 2011, p. 397). The problem with using television to observe and decipher social norms with is that reality shows are not actually based on real events.

Television was not at its best a decade ago, producers were struggling trying to figure out how it can reach to a broad audience and have them stay. Thanks to reality T.V, the television industry has not been the same ever since. Reality TV always get its viewers on the edge of their chair, from shows like The Bachelor, to other shows like Intervention, “all of them make you sit up and pay attention” (Poniewozik 1). Reality TV shows will do whatever it takes to get people to watch them. From a simple show called The Bachelor talking about love stories, to a show where they show a life of drug addict. They all presents a stories within, and sending a message to its viewers. What makes the viewer watches the show is the messages that the reality tv show trying to reach to its viewers.

Do you know the guiltiest pleasure of the American public? Two simple words reveal all—reality TV. This new segment of the TV industry began with pioneering shows like MTV’s The Real World and CBS’s Survivor. Switch on primetime television nowadays, and you will become bombarded by and addicted to numerous shows all based on “real” life. There are the heartwarming tales of childbirth on TLC, melodramas of second-rate celebrities on Celebrity Mole, and a look into a completely dysfunctional family on The Osbornes. Yet, out of all these entertaining reality shows arises the newest low for popular culture, a program based on the idea of a rich man or woman in search of

This research will focus on the negative impact of reality TV and analyse facts and examples of influence from reality TV shows. The information provided and studies are referred from year 2000 till present hence it will be based on most recent popular reality TV shows.

All networks care most about the more viewers, more money, and more real people acting insane is what capture the viewers to the show. On January 16, 2006, The New York Times declared a positive trend in reality television. Amidst the “mean-spirited, bug-eating shows,” do-good programs had appeared to provide housing, healthcare and help to the needy. The TV network also pays for medical treatments not covered by health insurance, as was case in an episode featuring the Gibbs family of Florida, whose father and son underwent procedures to remove brain tumors that cost more than $100,000. Reality television shows have become more popular than ever beyond the last many years. They normally are most popular when drama and insanity are lots particularly

The American culture revolves around media and the entertainment industry. From HBO to Fox News, American’s watch it all. Although there are so many options, reality television is the absolute best way to spend time in front of the TV. From 16 and Pregnant to Keeping Up with the Kardashians, reality television remains as one of the most viewed genres by people who watch TV regularly. It really allows people to observe how other families in the same culture would handle certain situations when faced with hardships. It could even be said that people look at these reality TV actors as role models at times. Honestly though, reality TV just help’s people laugh at others to make them feel better about themselves.

As technologies continue to increase, more televisions are being produced over time, which means networks and media producers are more active in finding ways to captivate the attention of their viewers such as the production of reality TV. With the existence of reality TV, people continue to question and discuss how influential and real actually it is. In James Poniewozik’s article “Why Reality TV Is Good for Us?”, he demonstrates how reality TV has evolved to become one of the most popular genres on television today, while in Jeremy W. Peters’ article “When Reality TV Gets Too Real”, he proved the problematic effect of this genre on people. Both articles manifest the profound impact of reality TV among the viewers. Nevertheless, Poniewozik talks about reality TV as a source of entertainment, while Peters talks about it as a menace. Using quotations from experts, anecdotes and supporting examples from lawsuits, Peters provide the most utility in his work, proving how reality TV is being taken too literally.

The cultural phenomenon ‘Reality Television (TV)’ has become an increasingly popular genre of television since its paroxysm onto the airwaves in 1945. The term ‘Reality Television’ can be defined as the genre of entertainment that documents the lives of ‘ordinary’ individuals through the exhibition of allegedly unscripted real-life scenarios, despite inquisitive inquiries disclosing Reality TV to entail facets of script. The primary objective of Reality TV is purely to entertain the audience. This genre of television is appealing to viewers due to its entertainment principle/value, the audience’s competency to correlate to the characters and their situations, and the contingency it presents for escapism and voyeurism. We can capitalise the Australian appropriation of the American popular dating Reality TV show ‘The Bachelor’ as a tool to further comprehend the purpose and appeal of Reality television. The postulations of media’s obligations to society in contrast to their current actions and media as a mirror to society - the normative theory, can also be utilised as an implement to apprehend Reality TV. Through the strict analysis of ‘ The Bachelor’ and the employment of the normative theory, the purpose and appealing factor of Reality TV can be deeply examined.

Today’s audience grabs hold of reality TV now a day. Looking forward week to week to watch these unscripted real life situation shows. In a way it 's becoming increasingly hard to avoid not watching. Some viewers see the TV show and tend to be attention seekers, and reality TV allows them to fantasize about achieving status through instant fame. Too much reality TV may lead viewers to idealize real world situations, like romanticizing dating. Like when Truman saw the girl in the library who was an actress and a fan of the show. He wanted to take her out sometime later that week, but she said it couldn’t happen because she knows what’s going on, but she had true love for him and asked to go out with him right then on a little date to the beach. As they went to the beach she was going to spill the beans and tell him everything. Then a man of the show in a car drove there to stop her acting like her father to get her before she ruined the show. It’s like most reality TV love shows on today people who audition for a show and know it’s scripted, but end up actually having a real feeling for the person.

Haggerty’s is a freelance journalist in Washington D.C.. She has the experience of being a business and real estate reporter, and also the editor for The Washington Post for more than twenty years. Haggerty has also graduated from George Washington University with a bachelor’s degree. She is a fan of reality television and has written this article to show the effect of reality television in the world we live in today and the messages they are sending to their audiences. Haggerty focuses on popular reality television shows, such as Keeping up with the Kardashians and the Real World, and how their messages can negatively affect the viewers of these shows. She also talks about how these reality shows have an impact on our lives, from perspectives on beauty standards, messages of violence, and social ratings. The author is able to show us how reality television effects us as a culture through the examples, ratings, perspectives, current situations, and reality television today. This article she has written is within the past six years and is still current today. She shares different perspective on each side of the argument of reality television having negative effects on culture and society and is not biased in her scholarly article backing up a lot of her reasoning and facts with evidence and other reliable resources. The source is accurate and reliable because she has posted her article on CQ Research’s website, which presents award-winning extensive reports on the essential

Media producers all around the world have discovered that so called “Reality Television” programs are the key to maximising viewer bases and therefore profits. It is undisputed that Reality Television makes money. This has resulted in immense amounts of these programs being plastered across our screens. While these programs line the pockets of producers and companies, they are not necessarily beneficial to their audiences and the society we live in.